In the production of tissue products, such as facial tissue, bath tissue and paper towels, manufacturers continually strive to improve the properties of tissue products to deliver attributes desired by consumers, such as improved softness and strength. While softness is commonly improved by post-treating the dry tissue, strength properties are generally derived from chemicals added to the fibers at the wet end of the tissue making process. Because of the nature of high speed commercial manufacturing, the machine direction and cross-machine direction strength properties of tissue sheets are not equal. Instead, the machine direction strength properties are generally significantly higher than the corresponding cross-machine direction properties, which makes the cross-machine direction properties the limiting factor for user acceptance.
Therefore there is a need for a method of improving tissue sheet properties, particularly the cross-machine direction strength and durability properties.